The Path to Power
by freebacontacos
Summary: The Gangs own Stillwater. Los Carnales, The Rollerz, and the Vice Kings. They don't care who gets involved, and your life could change or end by simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time...


I stood up from the bed and began getting dressed. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of having sex with twins, though I couldn't remember the names of the two girls for the life of me. I had met them at some bar and they were very, _very_ drunk.

As I put on my shirt, I looked over to the bed where the sisters slept, hair wild and messy, looking peaceful.

Careful not to wake them, I opened the bedroom door and walked toward their front door. I quietly opened the door and slipped out, locking the door before closing it. After all, Stillwater is a dangerous place. I wouldn't want those two to end up getting robbed.

* * *

The walk back to my apartment wasn't a long one, so I decided to take my time. After dark, the only people who were active were pimps, bums, and gang bangers, and I didn't roll with any of the gangs in Stillwater. The gangs just fought over nothing, and I didn't want any part of that.

"Watches! I got watches here!" Yelled some dude with a case full of watches. "Yo, man, these'll cost you six hundred dollars in the store…whatever… watches! I got watches!" he continued to yell.

A hooker walked up to me and spoke in a seductive tone, "Hey baby, I could show you a good time."

"Aw hell, no!" Someone yelled from across the street. The hooker and I both looked over to see a three young men dressed in yellow. They were examining something that was sprayed on the wall.

"Man, fuck the Rollerz!" One of the men, a white guy, said.

"Levar! You gonna let those bitches disrespect us?" One of the other men, a bald black guy, asked.

"Shit, what you think?" the last of the men, presumably Levar, replied.

Levar began to spray paint over the tag on the wall when three other men, all dressed in blue, approached them, one of them holding a baseball bat.

"The fuck you think you're doing?" The one holding the bat asked with hostility.

"Just bein' civic minded is all," one of the men in yellow replied.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, some dumb ass cracka went and shit all over this wall, we're just cleanin' it up."

The man received a bat to the face for his remark. In retaliation, Levar sprayed the baseball bat guy in the face with spray paint and punched one of the others. The remaining blue man, after punching the other man in yellow, began running across the street towards me. Levar through his spray paint can at the back of his head, hitting him and bringing him to the ground.

That's when everything went to hell. A car pulled up filled with Hispanic men, all wearing red, with guns pointed out of the window.

They began firing on the fighting gang members, who immediately began firing back. The blue guy who had ran away stood up with his gun and began firing on the red gang members, hitting the driver.

The driver's head fell and hit the steering wheel and them car sped forward. The red car suddenly speeding at me broke me out of my trance. Pushing the hooker out of the way, I jumped to the side and the car hit the wall that was behind us.

The car had caught fire and killed all of the gangbangers inside of it except for the one sitting in the back seat. The remaining blue gang member walked up to the car and fired on the last guy, finishing him off.

He was immediately shot by the yellow gang member who had been previously been whacked in the face with a baseball bat.

He then pointed his gun at me and I looked back with terror in my eyes. How was I going to get out of this? The answer was that I couldn't get out of this situation. I was going to die.

"Wrong time, wrong place, dawg."

I closed my eyes and waited for my death, but it never came. _"Did he miss?" _I thought. I know I heard the gunshot.

I opened my eyes to see a black man wearing a black leather jacket and another man wearing a t-shirt with chains around his neck. They were both wearing purple, so I assumed they were gangbangers too.

I immediately put up my guard as if readying myself for a fight.

"Whoa, whoa calm down, I'm not gonna hurt you," the man said as he offered me a hand. I took it and he helped me up.

"You okay playa?" he asked me. I nodded and he slung my arm around his shoulder to help me walk.

He placed me down further away from the car as it blew up, the fire finally igniting the gas tank.

"That don't look so bad, you should be fine," the man said. He gestured to the other man with him. "That's Troy, you can thank him later."

"Hey," Troy greeted me. I nodded in his direction in silence, still reluctant to speak.

The black man, who still hadn't revealed his name, turned back to me.

"The Row aint safe no more, son. We got gangs fighting over shit that aint theirs, and if you in the way, they don't care if you representin' or not."

"Julius, this is no time to recruit," Troy reprimanded the man, whose name was apparently Julius.

"We need all the help we can get, son"

"We _need_ to get our asses outta here."

"In a minute," Julius replied. He turned back to me.

"Look, the Row's got a problem. Com to the church when you wanna be a part of the solution."

Julius and Troy got up and left, leaving me alone to think about what I was just offered. _"Did I just get recruited for a gang?"_ I thought to myself. _"Well, I may as well see what's up with these people."_

With that thought, I headed to the church.


End file.
